Daily-Driving a Blackberry in 2023
scd31.com
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I find it’s best to think of the iOS keyboard[0] as being a single big touch area with no distinct buttons, which you type into by tapping your fingers in the general vicinity of where the correct keys are, and let autocorrect do all the work.
I get confused by people who disable autocorrect, because for me it’s the only way the keyboard works at all. Just as I’m typing this, fully half the words I’m typing are wrong as I’m typing them, and the phone is figuring out my actual meaning only by looking back entire sentences and figuring out the correct words by looking at probabilities. I never stop to check whether it got the word right, I just keep typing. It figures it out eventually.
(Side note, when it does get it wrong, I can’t imagine a worse system for correcting words than iOS has. I simply cannot ever get the cursor to go to the right place for correction. Whatever system is being used for placing the cursor in response to inaccurate taps, is fully and diametrically opposed to how I’d expect it to work. It’s criminally bad.)
- [0] probably android too, but I only have experience with iOS so that’s what I’m speaking to.
Also, I’m not sure how it is today, but 5-8 years ago I knew more words in my native language than iOS autocorrect and got tired of it “fixing” them.
Somewhat close languages (french/english) are often not great, and adding CJK with anything other than english to the mix is also a recipe for a bad experience.
Of course, you still need to switch for CJK languages (because they need an IME), but that’s a given.
To each their own, obviously. But... yeah, IMO it's pretty bad on Apple.
Android will autocorrect but if you immediately backspace, it reverts to the original. I didn't realize how much I relied on this function until it was absent.
By the time I have to anticipate the machine mis-fixing my not-mistakes, I think we're well into the-machine-is-wrong territory.
(Picked up the tip from another thread on here about how sloppy the iOS keyboard is, and have subjectively found it to be a big improvement.)
I want to speak with my own voice, not Apple's autocorrect voice. Doubly so in casual jokey chats. I do agree that it's unusable without it, but I ducking hate it.
I can now type “fucking” reliably without it replacing it.
The idea that a lot of the time the opposite of one bad idea is another bad idea.
The Blackberry form factor is a reasonable middle way that could be explored again. Blackberry input systems but with the expanded functionality of smart phones - just adjust the app quantity/quality to your needs. There have been companies that have tried but their efforts have been clunky and with out native OS support and apps developed with it in mind, it is an uphill battle.
Them: "We'll send a code to your phone."
Me: "Currently roaming isn't working on my phone, so I can't receive SMSs."
They stopped and looked at me, and said:
Them: "Well, we can't proceed."
There are some services that assume you have a phone, and simply will not work without. And some of them are effectively essential.
1) You have a smart phone
2) It is either Apple or Android and nothing else
3) You are happy to use their proprietary app/setup.
I started to become aware of this over a decade back when using Windows Phone. And while I am on an up to date Android phone now, that you are forced to participate.
This is also why Ted Kaczynski was fascinating, An absolute insane lunatic that made some good points about the nature of technology. While his idea about this was a lot more broad, the requirement of phones is just another inch being taken to get to mile took.
"127. A technological advance that appears not to threaten freedom often turns out to threaten it very seriously later on. For example, consider motorized transport. A walking man formerly could go where he pleased, go at his own pace without observing any traffic regulations, and was independent of technological support-systems. When motor vehicles were introduced they appeared to increase man’s freedom. They took no freedom away from the walking man, no one had to have an automobile if he didn’t want one, and anyone who did choose to buy an automobile could travel much faster and farther than a walking man. But the introduction of motorized transport soon changed society in such a way as to restrict greatly man’s freedom of locomotion. "
It's also an issue with "e-Government" platforms in some European countries. There's this default expectation that you want to use it, which has in some cases made certain tasks more difficult for those whom prefer using regular paper forms. The next layer is those platforms requiring Android/iOS apps, which could very well mean that being able to use healthcare or filing your taxes indirectly requires either a Google or Apple account, and agreeing to their agreements.
"The Kaczynski paradox" is a problem for a number (not all) of terrorists or terrorists groups, where fundamentally they have a good point, but also use unacceptable means to bring attention to these points.
That’ll get them to move.
Unless your account has a few million in it
The clerk would see your balance and probably lots of notices about being a high-net-worth individual etc on their screen
And I don't care about your bank balance :)
D’oh, didn’t realize the anecdote was about an in-person exchange at the bank, I skimmed the context too quickly.
He asked for his 60k worth of deposit in cash, apparently there are laws from the 30s that if you ask for cash they have to give it to you.
The bank ended up calling in police officer, who then confirmed that my grandfather was in the right, and they gave him the 60k. He stuffed it down his pants and drove to the other bank he used, with the police officer kind enough to follow him.
Funny story, but he is definitely on a list of people that that bank will not do business with.
TOTP 2FA is more secure than SMS and it works on an offline iPod Touch. There are also VOIP-based SMS services.
Do you have hopes that the manager would have a different opinion?
Also, some managers were born before mobile phones were ubiquitous.
It was literally curvaceous. Super pleaseant to handle, everything about its design was perfect. Even the default "email arrived" sound was so melodious that I wish I had a sample of it to use on my Android phone now. The only problem was, without BB service, it was unstable. The data connection would just silently "pause" leaving you with no email delivery to the (aftermarket) email client. And the keyboard was miles better than any touchscreen keyboard.
My next find was an old Xperia X1, the one with the slide-out keyboard. That was a neat device, even if WinCE was an awful mobile OS - at least the data connection stayed up and emails got delivered.
After that, Windows Mobile 8 for a while which was actually great. Three technological dead ends before finally going mainstream.
Still today, I don't use the phone much except for SMS and core productivity stuff. Mind you, I have the benefit of working at a computer.
On the other hand, these posts often feel incredibly precious, like the author has an unbelievable amount of free time to waste. It's similar to the feeling I get when I meet someone with an old-timey handlebar mustache. It's hard not to roll my eyes.
> Navigating around town becomes second nature once you stop receiving turn by turn directions from Google-et-al.
Depends on how big your town is and how frequently you go around in it.
I typically don't receive turn-by-turn instructions where I live; I guess they only really make sense for someone who uses a car? That's not very common here.
I'd still advise people to navigate without relying on Google or Apple Maps, not for nostalgia or "live in the moment", but because navigation softs are just not optimal[0] most of the time, especially for walking/biking.
Looking at the map and deciding your path yourself, checking only from time to time if you're on the path you chose or to check the landmarks is to me a way better experience.
I wonder if there's OSM apps that let the user draw a route and only notify when they substancialy deviate or at checkpoints they set.
[0] Outside of finding the actual shortest path, you probably have preferences on walking larger or narrower streets, less or more car traffic, better lighting at night, have nearby options to enter a cafe when you need to etc.